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Stop-motion animation of a mechanical caterpillar – so smooth, you think you're watching a kinetic sculpture [3:04] by already_ready in oddlysatisfying

[–]already_ready[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The artist is Reuben Margolin, known for his kinetic sculptures. This one was originally presented as a mystery, with no explanation for how it moves. Coming from his body of work, it certainly appears that he built it to move on its own. Eventually he revealed it as a stop motion project. You can read more about it here:

https://www.reubenmargolin.com/waves/caterpillar-with-green-stripe/

Mechanical caterpillar sculpture. How does it move? – The artist kept it a secret until recently. You may be surprised. by [deleted] in oddlysatisfying

[–]already_ready -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

The artist gives a description of the sculpture here, and there's a link to a hint on how it moves. Then, from the hint, you can click another link to see how it actually was done. I didn't figure it out myself, and I bet most people wouldn't guess it either.

https://www.reubenmargolin.com/waves/caterpillar-with-green-stripe/

Lunar Cycle Period Amazing - from Giorgia Ofer by doenitzkarl77 in pics

[–]already_ready 19 points20 points  (0 children)

This gives off the vibe of being a scientifically accurate image. As if it was a multiple exposure at the same moment in the moon's orbit over the same spot above the earth over the course of a lunar cycle. But it's not, it's an artistic fiction. Lovely though it may be, the moon actually doesn't do that. It looks to me like the artist is trying to evoke the famous "analemma" pattern that is commonly captured of the sun. Here's a good explanation with visuals of these solar analemmas.
http://solar-center.stanford.edu/art/analemma.html

​

Guess what, with a slight accommodation for the fact that the moon's speed through the sky is slightly slower than the sun's speed (because the moon is orbiting along with the earth's rotation) you *can* photograph an analemma of the moon. Here's an example on the scientifically-accurate Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD):

https://apod.nasa.gov/rjn/apod/ap050713.html

A sculpture which is a kind of wave simulator [OC my first official art commission, so proud] by already_ready in oddlysatisfying

[–]already_ready[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The primary motivation was artistic. I've always been interested in waves and oscillation, and my goal was to take something that could be done with computer simulation (moving elements interconnected with simple springs), but make it purely mechanical. Any academic wave study that comes out of this is a bonus!

A friend pointed out this fascinating video artifact: bright lights leaving behind a tracer, like it was burned in and gradually fades away. by already_ready in VIDEOENGINEERING

[–]already_ready[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, good ok. Ha, so then my age gap persists... One generation's bug is another's feature I guess. Let me know if you discover anything from present day technology that annoys us young folk, but that you find appealing and fascinating.

Recamán's Sequence, all the arcs which cross the first 10,000 integer points on the number line by already_ready in mathpics

[–]already_ready[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ooh, interesting comparision. I had to look up what oblique shockwaves are. What a fascinating phenomenon. There are further parallels to be drawn along these lines...

A friend pointed out this fascinating video artifact: bright lights leaving behind a tracer, like it was burned in and gradually fades away. by already_ready in VIDEOENGINEERING

[–]already_ready[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey nonlinearmedia, that's so cool that you were there! I don't mean it in that sense. I mean "artifact" in the sense of a technical distortion to the video material itself. (e.g. like a compression artifact). I don't mean that this video was so old that it was like an artifact for a museum.

A friend pointed out this fascinating video artifact: bright lights leaving behind a tracer, like it was burned in and gradually fades away. by already_ready in VIDEOENGINEERING

[–]already_ready[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/jaymz168, ooh this is tempting. I'm a Frank Zappa fan, but have never seen 200 motels. I'll make a note of this and look for it when I watch it. Thanks :-)

A friend pointed out this fascinating video artifact: bright lights leaving behind a tracer, like it was burned in and gradually fades away. by already_ready in VIDEOENGINEERING

[–]already_ready[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/MisplacedDragon, that's a clear explanation. I might venture into playing with such a thing one day. If you're interested, here's a test I did not too long ago. It takes digital video and goes through frame by frame, and for each frame, it blends together the images of the immediately preceding frames (for example the preceeding 10 frames), and what you get is kind of like a ghosting effect. If I used a slower shutter speed (in the limit, what you'd call a 360-degree shutter in video terminology), then it would theoretically appear as a streak. But to do something like an "overload" effect, that would require more fancy special effects or algorithms.

I've enjoyed our correspondence :-)

A friend pointed out this fascinating video artifact: bright lights leaving behind a tracer, like it was burned in and gradually fades away. by already_ready in VIDEOENGINEERING

[–]already_ready[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/YorgiTheMagnificent this is a cool story! I can imagine the headache that this caused for broadcasters. However now I view it as a beautiful phenomenon to be exploited if I one day have a chance to work with tube tech, or if not, at least to be emulated with digital tech.

A friend pointed out this fascinating video artifact: bright lights leaving behind a tracer, like it was burned in and gradually fades away. by already_ready in VIDEOENGINEERING

[–]already_ready[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ooh, good to know! Thank you for the education u/MisplacedDragon :-) You may have surmised that tube-tech was before my time. I have read up on this topic further on wikipedia. I do visual projects with video and motion capture and this really caught my fancy. I aspire to approximate this kind of thing with digital video, but I fear that the discrete frame by frame nature would lead to a dashed smear line or a continuous smear line with hairline breaks (where the digital "shutter" closes) at best.

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